Thursday, October 26, 2006

Your team's top receiver, and one of the best in the country, goes down. The coaching staff turns to you to take his place, making you the go-to guy. Top dog. It's an opportunity every college football player dreams of. A chance to showcase the talent that was oh-so-promising coming out of high school. To prove you're as good as the probable All-American you're filling in for.

The U-M football team and its coaching staff have performed a minor miracle in A2 this year, rising from the ashes (at least by Michigan standards) of a 7-5 season to the #2 squad in the country, and Adrian Arrington risks everybody else's hard work and sacrifice for that bullshit?!

What a selfish ass.

While details are still emerging, if the things Arrington's girlfriend alleges turn out to be accurate, you can bet you won't see Arrington on the field the next game or two. And if it turns out he lied to Coach Carr during this incident, my guess is he'll be gone for the rest of the season.

As he should be.

Too many people have worked too hard to put Michigan in the position they now enjoy. And for a player to jeopardize that is unacceptable.

please, please, please remember this post when this incident gets handled 'internally' & disappears into the 'that never really happened' file by the UM faithful - all while speaking underhandedly about Tressel and his inability to control every move his players make.

When I went to school there, the only time I'd go to ypsi was to go to the Vu! :) I wonder if that's where he was and if his GF was pissed he was out looking at other boobies... If this is true -- I, along with my michigan brothers, have been shamed.

AA is a 20 yo kid who did a dumbass thing.Most would argue that you would not go out and get drunk the night before a calculus or orgo exam. Shouldn't do it during game week, either.And think about how many times you may or may not have had to wrestle keys away from a friend...AA vs. a Shorty, guess who 'wins'.

These guys know that football is played on a BIG stage, and that their every move (and their blog pages) are scrutinized. ALL UM athletes go thru DV seminars, substance use/abuse seminars,nutrition seminars/disordered eating seminars and even how to balance a check book seminars (yes, really.)

Lloyd will take care of this. And if AA needs more serious attention then suspension, that will happen too.

I completely agree with this post--the kid did a moronic thingLloyd is NOT Tre$$elU of M is NOT tOSUtOSU did NOT expunge its football championshipU of M did expunge the basketball championships

I agree that what AA did is pretty stupid, though I admittedly did some stupid things when I was his age. However, I wasn't the starting WR at Michigan ... when I drank too much on Thursday night (underage) I missed Heat & Mass Transfer class on Friday morning (well, I didn't even have to be out drinking to think about skipping that class in most cases) ... I didnt' jeopardize Michigan's chances of beating their opponent on Saturday.

This whole thing is very disappointing to me. I'd be surprised if Lloyd really played him if he was aware of all the facts (which I guess no one really knows at this point anyway), but it's hard to say from the outside looking in. I sure as heck don't want to end up with a reputation like tOSU, Miami, and other felon-laden programs ...

While Yost is only talking about AA, I'll address that first. Lloyd cannot be around every player 24 hours a day. Kids do dumb things you wish they wouldn't. Since there is only a he said/she said going on and no blood or breath test, I doubt the court can do much. If he sits, it won't be for more than part of a game. I wouldn't want to be him in practice though.

For all of the OSU haters out there, we won! MC got suspended for things that happened after the NC, and never played for OSU again. He hasn't been a student there since spring 2003, get over it. Troy Smith is one of the best stories of a kid turning his life around of anyone. His incident for $500.00 probably cost OSU another title. JT has cleaned up the off field stuff considerably. Marcel Frost was dismissed earlier this season. Eric Haw had to transfer because he couldn't see the daylight out of JT's doghouse. Boone is on probation, and since he quit drinking, dropped 40 pounds and has turned his life around. Don't act like you haven't had things happen at UM (Marlon Jackson, Larry Harrison), because you have.

It seems LC & JT are making millions for a reason, and in making men out of boys the success rate isn't 100%. Let this AA incident play out and trust that they will do the right thing.

I have to agree with Yost on this one. If it turns out AA was drinking, he is gone in my book.

I competed at Michigan. I was a team captain as a 5th year senior. The thought of drinking in-season, absent maybe winter break when I was home, was off-limits. I can't say all my fellow "starting" team mates took this approach but I can say that if a fellow starter did something like this during our season, I would have asked the coaches to boot him from the team.

There is no place for this sort of stuff at any time but especially in-season. It absolutely kills team goals and chemistry. Any 20-year old knows that. Especially a 2nd time offender like AA who has already been suspended from the team once for bad behavior.

We're not acting like things haven't happened. From the Michigan Daily:

"Two years ago, point guard Daniel Horton faced domestic abuse charges after allegedly pushing his girlfriend. Originally suspended indefinitely, Horton sat out the remainder of the season when he pled guilty to the charges.

Defensive tackle Larry Harrison was involved in the last major legal incident concerning the football team.

Charged with indecent exposure in December, 2004, Harrison was found guilty of being a sexually delinquent person along with the original charge. Carr suspended Harrison indefinitely immediately following the arraignment that December, a year before the conviction."

I don't think anyone can argue that those were inappropriate punishments. We agree that if Arrington is guilty, Carr will handle it. But, appropriate or not, it always sucks to [potentially] lose a great player, so don't mind us if we kick some appliances around the house and swear a few times before it sinks in.

I thought individuals are innocent until proven guilty?? The girlfriend say's she didn't want it blown out of wack. BUT when you call the police in the state of Michigan for a domestic violance call...someone is being charged! Doesn't matter if the girlfriend pressed the charges or not. It is the LAW in Michigan. The courts in Michigan make a ton of revinew doing this. AA got charged and pleaded NOT GUILTY to the charge. This indicates that the incident was indeed blown out of proportion. What the Team and coach Carr need to do is disipline him for even being in the situation regardless of guilt. The punishment should fit the crime. I'm sure it will.

And I agree. But *if* (as I said in the article) he was out drinking and *if* he lied to Carr, then serious steps need to be taken.

However, if this incident was blown out of proportion and it didn't happen like folks *think* it happened, then he shouldn't miss a game (as much as "some" folks will say it was "swept under the rug").

"Innocent until proven guilty", this is a phrase I have heard at some point in my life in reference to our legal system.

Apparently this does not apply to personal opinions on web sites. There are no witnesses to these accusations. This is a he-said/she-said situation which is probably why Coach Carr has not suspended AA yet.

As of right now, there is no proof that he had been drinking and no proof that he laid any hands on his girlfriend. It could be as bad as depicted or it could be an angry girlfriend. We don't know.

Have to say that i am disappointed. AA should have behaved better. If what his GF told was all true, i guess he must sit out the rest of the season. We have standards here at MIchigan and they must be upheld.

in response to anon 1:28am and everyone else posting the same nonsense

Clarett never did anything illegal while he played for tOSU. He falsified that police report well after the NC game, and what did Ohio State do (not the NCAA... Ohio State)? They suspended him for the entire 2003 season. They kicked the best running back in college football at the time off the team for a whole year... they guy that won them the NC.

And here you are talking about ALLEGED reports on AA... Everything Mo C said about OSU giving him special benefits was alleged. NCAA investigated the program and guess what? They came up clean.

It's funny how a Michigan player gets in trouble and every maize and blue guy out there says "I want proof! he's innocent without proof! It never happened!" But when it's an OSU guy, you guys will believe any source, you'll even believe proven liar like Maurice Clarett over the NCAA investigators. That's pretty sad.

Hell yea this board has been pretty laid back lately with the we all love each other bullshit which we even have to type through clenched teeth... We needed a little controversy to stir up the old "Shut up OSU fans!!!", Tressel is a cheater", and whatnot. That's what makes this rivalry the best, not the "I'm special, you're special, we're all just a bunch of special fuckers" type of BS. Call us dirty. That way we can call your program a bunch of dirty mofos, or say Muck Fichigan!!! Either way keep it going, cause come Nov. 18th it will be decided over many beers watching the greatest game in the world... OSU vs. Michigan

When documenting a domestic violence response:The victim does not have to write a statement.The victim does not have to sign the report.The victim should not be asked if prosecution is desired.The officer shall act as the complainant based on information andbelief.

My take is that the cop taking the report was/is overzealous. The charges will be dropped when the prosecutor talks to the chick and she says WTF.

Then AA must explain why she said he was drinking in the report. If he told Carr he was not drinking but in fact he was, he should be out for the season IMO. BTW, I heard he had a cold that week ;)

Bellisari was suspended for the Michigan game in 2001 and the game before that too. Seems that OSU is not afraid to discipline players that get out of line, weather it be the star runningback or the starting quarterback.

We'll see if Michigan has the balls to follow suit. The fact that Errorington has already played two games since the incident tells me that, no, they in fact don't.

Anybody else see the irony? Michigan fans rip on OSU for being "dirty" for years and it turns out that their program is even worse than tOSU.

Bellisorry was allowed to dress but was 4th string and wasn't playing no matter what - that's pretty much a suspension. Tell you what - Carr can let Arrington dress for The Game and not let him play and we'll call it even!

I find it laughable that any rational person could equate Clarett "test driving" a car filled with cash, 8000(alleged) dollars worth of stereo equip, and clothing valued at 1000(alleged) dollars to a woman calling saying her boyfriend was driving drunk.

"The NCAA said the organization never confirms whether an investigation is taking place. NCAA infractions committee chairman Thomas Yeager said athletes are ineligible whenever they receive a special benefit otherwise unavailable to other students.

"If it's something like a student athlete driving a booster's car or coaches' or agents' cars, generally the rule is you're not driving other people's cars," he said. "If any student at the university could walk into a dealership and get a free weekend test drive, then that kind of thing would be permissible." "

This is from an ohio publication:http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20030801/football/569806.html

If AA made a silly choice, then I fully agree he should be suspended for the rest of the year. That is, if he IS PROVEN GUILTY - i.e. caught re handed, like a certain running back that was caught in an obvious infringement on NCAA rules, and then had the brains to inflate the value of items stolen out of a car that he should have never been driving AND REPORT IT TO THE POLICE.

If they'd found her car on Stadium with various assault rifles and a vodka bottle in the front seat, it'd be a Clarrettable offense. If his girlfriend called the cops because he was two mil in the hole to Israeli gangsters from L.A., it'd be a Clarrettable offense. This is good, clean fun. My bet is he was at the Wooden Nickel. That place sucked. Long live the Vu.

I really wish all of you (UMers and my fellow OSU fans alike) could take a step back and realize how incredibly stupid and juvenile you sound, going back however many years to rag on each other, exaggerating, outright misstating facts...

Here's my two cents, and I'll try to keep it "rill": During the Cooper years, OSU gained a well-deserved reputation for not being concerned enough about the character and off-field activities of the kids that made up the teams they ran out on Saturdays. That was probably as much the reason he got fired (see Reggie Germany's GPA of zero fall quarter '01) as was 2-10-1.

Since Tressel's come along, though, he's made a real effort to turn that around. Reynolds commits a shitty incident on the field, he's suspended for a game. Troy takes a little money from a booster, Tressel suspends him for the bowl game and the first game next season, AND continues to sit him for significant parts of the Texas game. Erik Haw got caught smoking a joint, and he NEVER got out of Tressel's doghouse and ended up transferring. Louis Irrizarry was gone before the ink dried on the police report (figuratively speaking). Jonathan Skeete was kicked off the team and his scholarship (despite what lots of people said, he was only allowed to TRY to walk on again, NOT reinstated - and Tressel ended up cutting him anyway). Some of you have made great hay about Alex Boone's DUI, but let's remember that that happened in the spring, and he spent all of spring practice off the depth chart and has been a model citizen since then.

As far as Clarett's concerned, when he imploded he had been at OSU for exactly one year. It seems to me that it might reasonably take that long for any coach/program to determine whether a kid might have some problems but is worth trying to steer right, or that he's not going to get it and needs to be cut loose. The false police report happened after his first season, and Tressel immediately suspended his most valuable player for an entire season. Everything that happened with him after that is on him rather than Tressel and/or OSU, like it or not. As far as MoC's academic allegations go, the reliability of the source(s) needs to be considered. You might say there's a lot of smoke there, but remember that ALL that smoke was blown up out asses by the WWL, who, having thrown their lot in with Clarett from the start, pretty much had to pimp his side of things as much as possible. The NCAA sure didn't back him up.

Big-time college football programs are sprawling, complicated institutions, and it would take any new coach/AD/president a couple-few years to impose their will and fix the things that are broken, unless they were willing to just burn the whole thing down and start anew. But ask yourself: how many "good" kids would something like that harm? To this Buckeye fan, it sure looks like Tressel's trying hard (and succeeding) to build a program that we can be proud of for its character as well as its performance on the field. I'd also argue that part of that "character" is doing what you can, within reason, to help young men get their lives right when they screw up rather than throwing them under the bus - and out of college - to enhance your own reputation.

I realize this won't be persuasive to many of you dollar-sign-typing folks, but you also need to realize that absent any actual - repeat ACTUAL - allegations of recruiting violations, you're just talking out of your asses.

With regard to Arrington, I can't see that Lloyd's done anything wrong yet. The only thing that's even a little bit questionable, possibly, is his reliance on AA's version of events given that Arrington's already been suspended once. But, again, this gets back to what I mentioned above - Lloyd probably believes Adrian's a good kid - he wouldn't have recruited him otherwise - and is going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he KNOWS exactly what the score is.

Finally: I wish we could get back to talking football and stop all this bullshit sniping back and forth.

Shut the hell up. Tressel will succumb to Oyd and your season will go down the tubes thanks to Manningham & Co. OSU hasn't faced a real defense yet and I'd take Mike Hart on my team over any of OSU's wannabes every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Mat - well said. Unfortunate for you that he's associated with OSU, but he is, and I love every second of it. I really hope that both teams are 100% mentally, physically, and personnel-wise on the 18th.Just like fans, there are players that do not represent the school they go to.

OK, matsut. I promise no more dollar signs for now. But seriously: how much fun is it really to discuss whichever snuffy Michigan/tOSU is playing for the next three weeks?

If Arrington lied to Carr about the events the night he took the car keys, he should be suspended. Again, we are without critical facts about what happened that night, how forthcoming Arrington was to the team.

Regardless: what he did was at the very least monumentally stupid, and possibly worse. The truth of the matter is probably that everyone but the handful of zealots who frequent these types of boards has probably moved on, including the Michigan football team. In fact, I imagine that in the world outside, people are living happy and productive lives. Fuck, I wish I wasn't such a meathead.

After Arrington's arraignment Lloyd Carr repeated that he believes the allegations, in this case charges, do not support the facts. I fully expect the domestic violence charges to disappear. Grabbing her by the wrists and forcefully dragging her out of the car would consitute domestic violence, but it doesn't appear this is what actually happened. Grabbing her wrists and wrestling away the keys is certainly inappropriate, especially since they were her keys, but isn't a sufficient action for domestic violence.

The drinking is another issue. As Lloyd says, it will be handled internally. It is only conjecture what that means. I suspect AA will dress for the next couple games but not play, a la Belasari. If he lied to LC, we all know Lloyd would not tolerate that.

Follow the MZone

Subscribe To

The MZone-slash-MichiganZone.net-slash-MichiganZone.blogspot.com is in no way affiliated with the University of Michigan and/or U-M football in any way. If you thought it was, frankly I'm surprised you know how to use a computer.